Ursidae
by Evil-Ekat
Summary: (AU, Updates infrequently.) Tragedy strikes, and Ice Bear winds up in a zoo. Through a series of fish-related events, he comes to know two other bears that live there. Together, the three of them make plans to escape their concrete prison.
1. Chapter 1

**I promise this won't be all sad backstories and angst. It's just the start-up chapter where things have to be boring and full of stuff happening. Also, there aren't any OCs beyond minor one-chapter people who are essential to the plot. This'll no doubt be AU as the show continues, but I still like the idea.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own We Bare Bears.**

* * *

"Alexi we missed one."

"What? Where?"

The man pointed with his chin. Just behind a snow drift, they could make out the outline of something camouflaged in the bleak landscape of white. The bear twitched it's ears, and blinked innocent, black, eyes at them. It was unaware of the fate that his siblings had met only minutes ago.

"Over there."

Victor received a cuff over the head for his troubles.

"Ignore it Victor. It's the mother we want."

"Where there's a cub, there's a mother."

"Just tranquilize the stupid thing if it bothers you so much! We'll use it as bait!"

"Da."

The cub watched as the human reached for something on the ground. It was shiny and grey in colour. He'd never seen anything like it before. He realized that it was slowly being pointed in his direction. The bear ducked behind the snow drift before anything could happen. The human made an annoyed hissing sound. The other one said something back to this.

The cub nervously peeked over the heap of snow once more, pressing himself flat against it. He could see that the two now had their backs facing away from him. They were concentrated on something else now. The cub's nose twitched. He picked up the scent of something familiar. Whenever his mother returned with food, he was typically stained with the seal's red stuff. It smelled almost like this, but there was something different about it. Were they hunting for food as well?

He had found the two when he was looking for his siblings. They had not been out of the den often before. Usually it was only when their mother carried one of them. All of his family had been missing when he woke up that day. He followed the trail of his mother for a little bit, but the cub soon realized that she was going to where the holes in the ice were. The food came up for air in these spaces. So she would wait there until once of them did. That could take days at a time though.

The cub instead retraced his steps, and followed the path that his siblings had taken. The path led towards another hunting ground. This one was for fish. His brother's scent remained fresh, even as he reached these two humans and their den. The bear figured that they had passed through here before the humans came. Now he needed to find a way to get around them without getting seen by them. He was much smaller and weaker than them. Without his mother there, it was dangerous to be off on his own.

Keeping pressed against the snow, the bear knew what he had to do. The cub wasn't sure where the idea had come from. It simply made more sense to just do what he was doing. He had learned from what method a few times. He'd picked up growling a little, and learning how to swipe with his paws at other things.

He was still keeping flattened along the ground, but the bear now knew how to move while doing so. Stretching out his front paws, the cub stuck his claws into the ice. He pulled himself forwards across the snow, and used his back legs to help. Bit by bit, the cub inched his way around the snow drift he had been hiding from.

Suddenly, he was grabbed by the scruff of his neck. The cub was pulled off the ground, and was met face-to-face with one of the humans. He saw and felt something sharp being pressed against his chest. The cub gave a raspy growl, and tried to swipe his paws at him. The cub received a blow to the head for his troubles. The cub howled, unable to see through the pain in his head.

A familiar roar tore through the air. The cub felt himself being dropped to the ground. Even more pain spread through his paws and his stomach at this. The two humans screamed, and he could hear the sound of them running, and his mother charging at them. The ground beneath his paws shook with vibrations. Then, a gradual cracking sound was heard. The ground started to tremble more violently.

"VICTOR!"

One of the men screamed, and his mother roared at them again. The cub tentatively opened his eyes. Not far off, he could see one of the humans standing there. The cub realized that he and his mother were standing on the ice. Where an air hole had once been, there was now a yawning, gap in the ice. Black water rolled underneath it, gradually turning red. The remaining human gave another yell.

"Do svidaniya _mama medved!_

He pointed his stick-thing at her, and suddenly, there was a sharp crack. His mother gave one final howl before collapsing to the ground. The man was sent recoiling backwards. He slipped on the ice, and fell backwards into the freezing water as well. Once or twice, his head popped above the surface before the undertow dragged him back downwards. Within a few minutes, the screaming and thrashing around had stopped.

The cub ran towards the ice to where his mother now lay. Was she hurt by the man's stick? When he stepped onto the ice, it groaned. The bear could feel it shattering under his paws. The cub didn't know why he did it, but he suddenly dropped onto his belly again. The ice instantly stopped making noise. The cub gradually slid his way across the thin ice, without it ever making a sound. He made it to the spot where his mother lay.

Nudging her side, he waited for her to respond. His mother didn't move, or make any sound. She was still. Walking around her, the cub saw that there was red stuff coming out from between her eyes. The cub suddenly realized he had seen this before. When the seals went still, and they were covered in red, that meant that he could eat... They never woke up from sleeping after that. Did this mean that his mother wasn't going to wake up either?

The cub gave a whimper. There was red stuff leaking from a part of his chest already. Was he going to sleep as well? Where were his brothers? How come the two of them had gone missing? The cub curled up next to his mother, giving another pitiful wail. Above him, the sky danced around, multiple colours threading their was through the inky darkness.

It was nightfall. Well, at least the start of winter had begun in the North. For the first six months of his life, the cub had seen nothing but the sun. Now it had gone, just like his mother had. The cub didn't know what to think of the frightening blackness that surrounded him. It got harder to see, and the sky continued to do strange things above him.

The bright and sunshine-filled world that he had known his entire, short, life faded into a strange, unfamiliar place.

He was completely alone.

The cub watched the dancing lights above him with tired eyes. They cycled through green, purple, and blue, with the occasional bit of yellow. Where had the sun gone? What were the dots in the sky doing there? Once or twice, he reached out a paw to grab them. He couldn't reach any of the dots or the colours in the sky. He sat up a little, hoping he could reach them that way.

Something new caught his attention. The cub saw that there was a bear in the sky. What was it doing up there? How was it supposed to come back down again? Didn't it have to eat? The cub was reminded of his mother. It didn't need to eat if it was sleeping all the time. Maybe that bear... Maybe it was his mother!

Red lights pierced the sky. He hadn't seen any red before. The bear turned around, and he realized that the red lights were creeping across the snow, getting even closer to him. Then, even more light began to appear. Her heard sounds, and he heard even more human beings. They were talking and yelling as well, and he could hear them walking across the snow.

"RCMP! SHOW YOURSELVES!"

Holding a gun in one hand, and a flashlight in the other, the officer and his coworkers continued to search the camp. Several tents were set up, but they all seemed to be abandoned. Inside of them, countless items were there to show proof of the poacher's wrong-doing. Knives of all sorts, maps, and enough camping supplies to last the fur-poachers years.

The officer came across a note book in one of the tents. He cautiously flipped it open, not wanting to disturb too much. Inside of it, he was frustrated to realize that it was all in Russian. They would have to get a translator again to help figure things out. Why would Russians come to Canada when they had polar bears of their own? On second thought, why wouldn't they try in Alaska before crossing yet another border? It didn't make any sense, but it was his job to find out the hows and whys of it all.

Exiting the tent, the officer ventured farther down into the tiny camp. Along the way, more evidence was found, and he called over some of his partners to deal with it. He continued to follow a group of tracks down the snow, and was careful not to get in the way of any of them. Blizzards would be upon them soon. They needed to grab everything that they could before the case literally went cold.

The officer realized that there were the tracks of two men, and the paws of one, very large polar bear. They continued downwards, to where a visible patch of ice began. He continued to shine his flashlight across the ice, until he came upon the still body of the polar bear. Not far off, he could see the ice stained red, and a hole punched clean through it.

"Oh dear." He muttered to himself.

A tiny flicker of movement caught his attention. He saw a small head peek out at him from behind the dead polar bear. It must have been one of her cubs.

"Hey guys! C'mere!"

Two of his partners showed up. He pointed to where the baby polar bear was hiding. One of them let out a low whistle.

"Poor fella'."

"I'm going to get him." The officer said.

"What? Are you out of your mind?!"

"Just get me a rope and a life jacket."

Both of them shook their heads. The man didn't really mind. He was outfitted with a life jacket and had a rope threaded through the back of it. Once he was strapped in and as safe as he could be, the officer clipped a tranquilizer gun to his belt. Slowly and carefully, he slipped his way onto the ice. He could feel his weight causing it to shift underneath him.

Still keeping cautious, he lay down on his stomach, and started to inch his way across. It was survival 1O1. So long as he spread his weight out evenly across the ice, he wouldn't fall into the freezing water below. Ironically, people had first discovered this from polar bears. They'd seen what they had done, and then copied the movements. Just like the one that he was now rescuing.

The ice grew more thin as he approached the two. Here was here he had to be really careful. There was already one hole smashed in the ice. He didn't need to make it any larger. When he reached them, he could now fully see the cub. Despite his thick fat and warm fur, the cub was still shivering, and no doubt frightened. Glad for the thick gloves he wore, the man reached out to grab the cub.

The cub had other plans though, and dodged out of the way. The man then reached for his tranquilizer gun. The cub growled at him as he did so. The officer noticed that the second he took his hand away from it, he stopped barring his teeth. Clever little guy knew what a gun was then. The officer reached for it again, and this time, the cub hid behind his mother.

So he was going to play this the hard way...

After a lot of fighting, scratching, and swearing later, the man eventually managed to get the bear cub away from his mother. Having to hold on to the bear at the same time, he let his comrades pull him back with the rope. By the time they reached land again, the cub had fallen asleep on him. Already the size and weight of a medium-sized dog, he had a bit of trouble getting the cub off of him.

The cub was already drowsy. Then he felt something cold and sharp prickle between his fur. He tried to fight it off, but he was suddenly much too tired to do anything about it. The darkness of the sky seemed to close around him, the bear in the sky and the colours fading with it.

The bear fell asleep, completely oblivious to the fate of his remaining family.


	2. Chapter 2

**Ice Bear is cannonically the youngest of the bears, as stated by the show's staff. They just happen to baby panda, even though he's the middle child. That's also the order of the bearstack. Interesting.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own We Bare Bears.**

* * *

"Lookit the ice bear mommy!"

"That's a polar bear sweetie."

"Ice bear!"

Ice Bear tried barring his teeth at the humans, but this didn't seem to deter any of them. They all chattered excitedly between themselves, staring at him. There was no way to avert any of their stares. He snarled to himself, and turned around. Only to find himself face-to-chest with a solid block of white.

It was another bear. This one was a male, a fully grown one at that. The larger bear showed his teeth at him. Ice Bear took a step back. A gigantic paw swiped at him, pushing Ice Bear into the water. For a moment, he struggled to keep afloat in the water. It was too warm for his liking, and it smelled strange. Everything did for that matter. The entire exposure smelt like humans. He had no idea what was going on or why he was here. He family was gone as well. His two brothers and mother were nowhere to be found. The sun was back now as well.

Ice Bear tried to get back onto land again. But his paws slipped and slid across the slick, wet surface. Digging his claws into the ground helped a little though. Just as he was about to get out of the water, the other bear pushed him back into the water, still showing his teeth. The bear cub realized that he wasn't going to let him up. He tried swimming over to a different area instead, but the larger bear followed him. The older clearly had no interest in sharing his space. Ice Bear swam around for what felt like hours. He alternated between swimming and floating on his back, waiting for an opportunity to get back on dry land.

Eventually, the larger bear grew tired of tormenting him. He started to doze off, sunning himself. Wet and miserable, he finally escaped the water. Ice Bear made sure to be quiet, carefully stepping around the larger bear. He searched for some kind of way out of the enclosure, but found nothing. Instinctively, he let out a growl. Too late he remembered that the larger bear was sleeping.

"Be quiet." He snarled.

Ice Bear didn't say anything in return. He chose to find a spot as far away from the other bear as possible, and rest. There was nothing else to do. There were no other animals to hunt, his brothers were gone, and his mother was not going to come back now. But the last straw came when one of the humans entered the space he was confined in. The larger bear didn't mind, but he certainly did.

Something red was dropped near his face. He bristled, and jumped away from it. The other bear walked up to whatever it was and then ate it. The human said something and waved it's hands. Then, it tossed another piece the red stuff in his direction. Ice Bear cautiously sniffed the stuff. He wrinkled his nose. It smelled almost like meat, but not the kind that he was used to.

A small bite confirmed that the food was disgusting. He did not finish it off, and let the larger bear eat it for him. This sparked another frustrated reaction from the human. He dropped the meat. This time Ice Bear picked it up and dropped it in front of the other bear, who greedily ate that as well.

"You not hungry?" The older bear asked.

Ice Bear didn't say anything.

"Yeesh, what are you mute?"

Ice Bear didn't say anything.

"Weirdo."

Ice Bear didn't say anything. The older bear went back to business, finishing off his own food. The human had given up on trying to feed him the terrible meat, and had left the enclosure. Hungry but somewhat triumphant, Ice Bear lay down. Now they would realize that he needed food that was not terrible. At least, he hoped they would.

* * *

"Pan-Pan!"

Grizz tackled Panda and pinned his brother to the ground.

"I told you not to do that." Panda whined, trying to bat away his paws.

"You'll never guess what happened!" Grizz excitedly yelled.

"What is it?"

"There's a new bear! You're not the youngest anymore!"

This was fantastic news. Panda was tired of always being the youngest, and having Griz point it out to him all the time. But now, there was no more of that to deal with. He'd be the middle of the bears in the zoo! Which was perfect. He wouldn't be the youngest, or the oldest. He would get to be, the middle of them. This would be perfect!

"Really?" Panda asked. "What kind of bear? Is she single?"

"Guess!"

"Don't tell me she has a long-distance relationship!"

"No Panda, she's a he." Grizz corrected. "Now guess!"

"Is it a, um, a black bear?"

"No, but it _is_ related to them."

"A koala bear?"

"Those aren't actually bears Pan-Pan."

"But they have bear in the name." He frowned.

"I'll give you another hint." Grizz said. "We already have _one_ of them in the zoo."

Panda instantly pushed Grizz off of him, snarling.

"Is it another panda?! Where is he?! Let me at him!"

"Calm down there buddy, he's just a polar bear."

 _"Just_ a polar bear?!" Panda balked. "Have you seen the other guy before? He could tear us to shreds!"

"Now, now." Grizz started, patting him on the head. "Just because there's a language barrier between us-"

"He can't even speak Polarian! And it's pretty much the same thing as Grizzlynese!"

"Maybe he just has a weird accent." Grizzly suggested. "I mean 'get off my territory' sounds a lot like 'let's be friends' as it is."

Panda inwardly groaned. He didn't get what Grizz's obsession with making new friends was all about. They already shared an enclosure, they didn't have any more room for another bear. Oh what he wouldn't do for the zoo back in Canada. Filled with grass and bamboo. And sweet potatoes as well. Here there were just the regular kind of trees that he couldn't eat! Grizz liked them, out Panda wasn't too crazy about them.

"Humans are coming this way!" Griz said, taking a sniff of the air. "Quick! Position Gamma!"

"Bur Grizz, we talked about this-"

Grizz shoved Panda onto his back. The bear gave a sigh. Now he couldn't get up off his back! The bear tried to struggle around, but he was too round to do anything about it. The humans that passed by always had to watch what they were doing. For some reason, this was the perfect distraction. Grizz was able to reach through the fence, and grab some of the food that the humans had with them.

After a little more struggling, the humans grew bored and left. Grizz returned with the spoils of their latest plan, and flipped Panda onto his side. From there the bear managed to get back up by himself. The food they got was perfectly fine, but the human food was much better. The two went through everything that Grizz had managed to grab. Then they hid the evidence. It turned out that by climbing a tree near the fence, they could throw everything into a garbage can. It came in handy, and no one was ever the wiser.

The only problem was that feeding time soon came. They were already full, and the people would know that something was up if they didn't eat their dinner. Panda got so much bamboo that the thought of eating it all practically made him sick. Grizz had a mixed diet, so he got fish and several fruits. They both took one sniff of their food and wrinkled their noses.

"No way can I eat all of this fish." Grizz declared.

"But what do we do with it then?"

They were both silent for a moment, debating what they should do. Then, Grizz came up with an idea.

"Oh! I know! We can give our food to the new guy!"

"Yeah! And then we won't have to worry about him beating us up!"

"Yeah!"

Now all they had to do was take the food out of their enclosure. They were fed once the zoo was closed down for the day, so there was no need to worry about anyone seeing them. Grizz picked up a fish, and Panda did the same. The taste of it was disgusting in Panda's opinion. They were so salty and oily. Being a herbivore didn't help what he thought about it either. But the idea of not having a polar bear that hated them was more appealing. After all, it was a good idea to make a proper first impression.

Being the heavier bear, Panda gave Grizz a boost over the fence. Then he climbed up a tree, and then took a leap of faith over the fence, and into Grizz's waiting arms. He landed as smoothly as was to be expected. Now that they had left their enclosure, they had to be especially careful. There would still be other people wandering around the place.

The polar bear enclosure was located a little ways north of them. First they had to pass by the koala bears and kangaroos. It was winter, but they had glass cages instead of fences. It was heated on the inside. Panda and Grizz got no such luxury because it this was supposedly the climate their ancestors lived in during the winter months. Panda still would've rather been inside, but that wasn't going to happen. Heck, Grizz was supposed to be hibernating right now! Apparently Grizz and his body had never gotten the memo.

They reached the polar bear area with no problems. But now came the tricky part. If the bigger, scary bear was awake right now, they would have to wait until he was asleep. The risk of getting caught by him was not pretty. Hopefully his new roommate would be more interested in meeting them.

The polar bear enclosure was lowered into the ground. It had it's own pool, and was much larger than the spot that Panda and Grizz shared. Most of it was water though. There was an island in the middle of it, and some land where the entrance to it was. Grizz peeked into the pen first. Panda followed when he didn't scream in terror.

The larger bear was in a dead sleep. The new guy was resting on the far side of the enclosure. He had his head resting on his paws, but he was awake. Grizz straightened up to his full height, and waved down to the bear.

"Pssst! Hey! New guy!"

The polar bear's attention focused on them. He walked over to the wall and stared up at them. Grizzly nudged Panda in the stomach.

"Isn't he so cute?" Griz whispered.

"Totally." Panda agreed, letting go of the fish that he was holding.

"I'm Grizz, and this is Panda!" He whisper-yelled. "Can you understand me? He Panda. I Grizz."

The polar bear growled something at them. Panda didn't know what he was saying, so Grizz attempted to translate for him.

"I think he says he said hello!" Grizz said. "Well, either that, or 'be quiet, you'll wake him up'."

Panda sighed and pressed a paw to his forehead.

"We brought you some fish!" Grizz added. _"Fiiish!_ Do you understand me?"

The polar bear growled something else. Panda was certain it had to do with Griz's loud voice.

"Give me that."

Panda took the fish Grizz was holding, and tossed it down to the new guy. Then he tried tossing down the second one. But instead of landing on the intended target, it hit the larger bear on the head. All three bears froze as he began to stir. But the older bear did not wake up. Instead, he turned on his side and continued to sleep.

"Whew."

The duo waved at the new guy. He waved back at them, staring at the two fish. The two bears high-fived.

"Misson accomplished."


End file.
